Plastic is threatening our planet’s survival, from poisoning and injuring marine life to disrupting human hormones, from littering our beaches and landscapes to clogging our streams and landfills. Together, we can make a difference.

Earth Day is now a global event each year, and more than 1 billion people in 192 countries now take part in what is the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.

It is a day of political action and civic participation. People march, sign petitions, meet with their elected officials, plant trees, clean up their towns and roads. Corporations and governments use it to make pledges and announce sustainability measures. Faith leaders, including Pope Francis, connect Earth Day with protecting God’s greatest creations, humans, biodiversity and the planet that we all live on.

You will have heard that Theresa May wants to lead the way in the UK by banning plastic straws and cotton buds.

Here at Alfriston we have been profiling our use of plastic and highlighting waste. Some girls have been collecting the plastic waste from our lunches and snacks over a two-week period at the end of which we will weigh it all. P16 girls have carried out a survey and made recommendations to the Senior Leadership team about how we can reduce plastic use in school.

In English girls have been using the topic as a focus for their writing and we are looking forward to hearing more about their ideas.

In addition, we have been thinking about how wasteful our society is and some groups have been on visits to see what happens to our waste after we have binned it or flushed it. We have also been running a swap shop in school to encourage the idea that you can pass on things you don’t want anymore rather than throwing them out. There was a queue at the door on the opening day and lots of great items to swap.